“She could just look at a picture (of a dress) and reproduce it,” said Wanda Cordes Baldwin, one of Cordes' seven children.

Cordes had a deep interest in entomology — or the study of bugs — that she taught herself.

She used that knowledge to educate Wilson County 4-H members, many of whom took home 4-H awards because of her insights on insects.

Cordes, winner of a 4-H Alumni Award in 1991 for her contributions to the program, died Sunday at a San Antonio hospital after being injured in a fall three months ago. She was 85.

“She believed in working with children,” said another Floresville 4-H leader, Mata Orth.

Cordes learned how to sew from her mother on a pedal-powered sewing machine, said Shirley Basham, one of Cordes' three sisters.

She remembers her older sister, while in high school, making her dresses out of feed bags the family got for their livestock. Rather than being embarrassed, Basham said the dresses made her feel proud, like she had gone “to Macy's and bought a $100 dress.”

Cordes, whose father owned a San Antonio restaurant and hotel, married in 1949 and moved with her family 11 years later to Floresville.

She focused on her seamstress skills then, her daughter said, and soon learned to design her own creations as well.

Her family said Cordes' creations included gowns for royal courts at Fiesta events and the Floresville Peanut Festival, costumes for Bob Hope, Tanya Tucker and other performers in San Antonio and fanciful outfits for the Magic Time Machine waiters and waitresses.

“I remember her Snow White and Wonder Woman (costumes),” said Baldwin. “She created them on her own.”

Cordes got involved in 4-H activities after her children were born and provided more than 50 years of leadership to the organization in sewing, cooking and entomology.

Baldwin said the entomology program became so successful it helped several youngsters win college scholarships. Some even stayed in entomology as a career, Baldwin said.

“If she couldn't find the time, she just made the time,” the daughter said.